Trade Minister Zulhas Calls The Cause Of Indonesia's Manufacturing PMI Down Due To Illegal Imports And Old Factory

Trade Minister Zulhas (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

TANGERANG - Minister of Trade (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan admitted that Indonesia's manufacturing purchasing managers (PMI) experienced a decline. One of the reasons is because illegal import activities are still rife in the country.

The man who is familiarly called Zulhas said that apart from illegal import activities, the reason why Indonesian manufacturing PMI has decreased was because factories were no longer competitive.

"Yes, there are many things, one of which (illegal imports). So if manufacturing is various reasons, there are old machines, they are not competitive," he said when met in the Jatake Industrial Estate, Tangerang City, Banten, Monday, September 22.

Zulhas said that the transfer of factories from one area to another is also another factor in weakening Indonesia's manufacturing PMI.

Furthermore, Zulhas also revealed the reason why factories moved from West Java and Banten to Central Java. This move is because the cost is much cheaper.

There are also those who move, many of the Tangerang have moved, sir. So closing is actually not necessarily closed, moving, many have moved to Central Java. Because Central Java is cheaper, then the workforce is Central Java, you know, calm down," he said.

"The union of workers is in an industry that has only one 20,000 employees, sometimes it doesn't even make them, so the atmosphere of work is more conducive. Here he said, here, kawarang, that one union industry can be 10, that could be 11 too," he continued.

The Ministry of Trade, continued Zulhas, has tried to stem illegal imported goods by setting import regulations that were previously post-borders into borderers. However, the regulation also turns out to still have weaknesses.

"In the past, post borderers were allowed to enter the shops, the Ministry of Trade would only check later. That's even more difficult, now change it to a border again, but even then there are still weaknesses, sometimes the documents don't match what is filled," he said.

There is also, for example, one container is also suitable for it, the goods are suitable but the volume is not appropriate. For example, it contains 100,000, yes, in the notes, but in reality it can be 500,000, too," he continued.